National Enquirer Heir Wins Back Right to Keep His Guns

It has been a long, weird road for Paul Pope. The son of the founder of the National Enquirer found himself locked in a legal tussle involving his own mother. The most recent front in that on-going fight: Pope's been trying to get his guns back.

In 2013, a Palm Beach County judge forced Pope to hand over his considerable arsenal of firearms (and it is considerable; New Times spent a couple of days hanging around Pope, and one morning watched his staff catalog the expensive shotguns, assault-style rifles, and handguns Pope kept in his bedroom closet). The court's protection order stemmed from a flurry of legal filings Pope's mother, Lois, filed against her son, claiming she felt threatened by his presence.

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Pope played nice with the judge's order. He handed over the weapons. Recently, after a period of time allowed by the courts, Pope filed to have that 2013 order amended. He wanted his firearms back.

In late July, a court agreed to modify the protection order. “I am ecstatic that the courts realized that under the Second Amendment, I have a constitutional right to bear arms to protect myself and my family just like any other American citizen,” Pope stated in a statement. “This is the beginning of my road to redemption.”

According to Pope, his reasons for wanting the arsenal back are not just Second Amendment-related. Pope believes his children are the possible targets of kidnapping plots — an assertion he has made numerous times over the past two years after his mother took out kidnapping insurance on his children. Pope says the kidnapping insurance is tied to his efforts to unearth information about his family's wealth and eventual loss of the National Enquirer property — a tabloid (and possibly Hollywood) tale in itself.

"This is the tip of the iceberg to regaining all of my civil rights," Pope's statement went on. "I will not stop until there is justice and am hell bent on the truth being told. It is because of my determination, focus, and tenacity that I have come this far — I am and always will be driven by absolute certainty in what I am doing and what is right."

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